Writeaholic Inspiration: Don’t Wait For Your Muse. Just Write.

The hardest part of writing for most writers, is starting. The physical act of walking to our writing chair and sitting down seems like the last thing we want to do some days.

What stops us is fear. We’re scared because we don’t know what to write.

When I’m in the middle of writing a book, and I have a good outline to work from, I’m enthusiastic to sit down and get to work every day. But when I have articles to write, or I have to start mapping out a large writing project, then I’m a lot more reluctant to write.

Horror writer, Stephen King, said that he sits down and writes at the same time every day regardless of how he’s feeling. No matter what, he propels his backside to his writing chair and starts writing straight away.

He says that many would-be and amateur writers believe that they can’t start writing if their muse isn’t there. He also says not to wait for your muse because it won’t turn up for work until you do.

And I’ve noticed that this is how successful writers work. They don’t wait for inspiration to strike or for their muse to show up. They just sit down and start writing.

Novelist, Dean Wesley Smith, takes it a step further. When he sits down to write every day, or should I more correctly say every night because he only works in the evenings, not only does he not wait for his muse to strike, he also has no idea what he’s going to write until he sits down.

He writes by a method he calls “Writing into the dark” where he only knows the bare bones of what he’s going to write. In his book, “Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline” (https://amzn.to/3EKs1Vl) he says that when he starts a new novel, all he has in his head is a character, their mood, and a setting. With only those three things he starts writing his first page and from there the ideas flow as he writes. It really is fascinating to read about his thought process.

If you want to sit down and write but don’t know where to start, do a search online for a random word generator, pick 3 words and write for 5 minutes. I’m always amazed at how much I can write in 5 minutes without knowing anything except the 3 words, which I have to use in the first paragraph. It turns out that I can write ⅔ of a page.

Free writing works for both fiction and non-fiction and they are both a lot of fun and it helps to get you into the writing ‘zone’ quickly.

For non-fiction, choose a random subject and write a list of 10 question you could ask about it. Done well, those 10 questions could become chapter titles for your next book. :)

But however you do it, when you need to write, sit down and do it.

Don’t wait for your muse. It won’t turn up for work until you do.

And most importantly, enjoy writing.

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